DVD Review – Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie (2013)

Jay and Silent Bob, the drug dealing duo last seen in Kevin Smith’s Clerks II return to our televisions, animated on this occasion. Director Steve Stark animates a script written by Kevin Smith, based on his graphic novels and produced by his partner in crime, Jason Mewes.

The story follows the dynamic duo as they look to become crime fighting superheroes. They somehow manage to hop, skip and jump over several well-known origin stories that are presented to them. They eventually win millions of dollars after buying scratch cards and pay their way into the superhero life style as Bluntman and Chronic. They find themselves battling a group of super villains that discover that they’ve all ended up in prison by the bluntsabers of the pair of spandex wearing stoners.

Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Movie is pure fan appreciation at its finest. Animator Steve Stark first caught Smith’s attention when sharing videos bringing Smith’s podcasts to life through his style of animation. A few years down the line, why not give him a feature length story?

The film is genuinely funny at times, myself and my wife both had to stop what we we’re doing and get let out a great belly laugh. Then on some occasions the film could get a little tiresome; Steve’s Smodimations were wonderful as great 3-5 minute chunks of animation, but with Groovy Movie being well over an hour it becomes a struggle.

One of the notable characters brought back to life in this movie is Cock Knocker, a villain last seen in Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back played then by Star Wars actor, Mark Hamill. Now with this movie being a low budget animated adventure, Kevin Smith pops up in animated form breaking the fourth wall to inform you that they couldn’t get Hamill, but they did get Tara Strong – the voice actress know for ‘Powder Puff Girls‘ and ‘My Little Pony‘! This decision just removed me from the whole experience, the deliberate high pitched tones of Strong just didn’t work for me at all.

From my recollection this film was made with a budget no higher than $70,000, but hell the audio sounds pretty ropey at times, some dialogue from Jason Mewes and some others seems muffled at times, I know it’s a tight budget, but I felt that the audio needed to be a number one priority, it needs to be crystal clear if it’s being layered over animation.

Overall it’s a decent watch for Kevin Smith fans and Smith’s fans alone.

3/5